Sweet New Zealand

There is a lot of sweetness to celebrate this month in New Zealand, not least a long, hot summer now stretching into autumn (with apologies to farmers).  And this weekend is Easter with its proliferation of eggs, bunnies and chickens, mostly of the chocolate variety. But what could be nicer than food bloggers dropping their delectable concoctions in my mailbox?  Come let me share with you the roundup for the month of March.

A peek into the world of raw food starts us off with this exquisite looking entry from Nicola of Homegrown Kitchen. Nicola made this for Purple Cake Day and the poignant and inspiring story behind this can be found on her post. I am so pleased she chose to enter with this, much admired by me,  Raw Blueberry 'Cashew' Cheesecake.    I am in awe at the wonderful colour and can only imagine what it would be like to bite into the creamy berry filling and chewy chocolate base. Nicola says it is so delicious and so good for you and I am certainly not going to argue with that.  I just long for a slice.  Sigh.

Sweet New Zealand creator Alessandra Zecchini dishes up her Apple Slice Cake made with Oratia Beauty apples.  Don’t you just love their name?  Apparently it’s an incredibly simple and quick recipe that makes an amazing apple cake. 

Alessandra has several blogs (I don't know how she does it, I have difficulty with one) and this second entry comes from her Only Recipes site.  Delectable Bergamot Orange Cupcakes topped with candied Bergamot Orange peels. Sounds exotic – and I have to say I am in love with that chair.

Mairi’s curiosity was piqued by a recent raw food class she attended and this dish, Fruit Salad with Honey Nut Crumble, stood out for her.   I’m not surprised as it really took my fancy too.   It looks so tasty with fresh summer fruits and a date & orange syrup.  Do check it out as Mairi has written about the rest of the raw food dishes too.

For those moments when only chocolate will do, Julie at Domestic Executive heads to the kitchen to make this, descriptively named, Anti Chocolate Nemesis Brownie.  In her words – it packs the same, if not better, chocolatey punch as a sugar and wheat version.  Or so my friend told me.  I believe a reliable brownie recipe should always be in one’s repertoire and I willingly add this one. 

In the unlikely event that it has escaped you, this is Easter weekend and Lydia of Lydia Bakes has played Easter Bunny by giving us her take on the famous Cadbury Crème Eggs – Creme Egg Cupcakes.  Love it!  Lydia is a real creative talent in the kitchen so you know these are going to be good.  Vanilla fondant filling, topped with chocolate buttercream and a mini crème egg on top.  Come on, you know you want to and Easter is a great excuse for a chocolate gorge.

Nutella + crostata. Those two words would be enough to warrant a look at GreedyBread Michelle’s entry but if you really require persuasion let me tell you her bad boy Nutella and Crostata tart (or the mini version) is very easy, very delish and very quick and you can slip in a cup of coffee while you’re waiting for the pastry to rest. Now, who can say No to that? 

I love the bunny that pops up everywhere on Genie’s Bunny Eats Design blog; he (she?) is so cute. This time topiary Bunny is guarding these Banana Hakanoa Mini Cakes (so much prettier than banana muffins). If, like me, you didn’t know what Hakanoa is, well it’s a ginger syrup. Bunny, or no bunny, these cakes look very appealing and that thick cream cheese frosting does it for me.

Fragrant cardamom is one of my favourite spices and I am always keen to see how it is used in both sweet and savoury dishes.  Inspired by a plum and cardamom jam, Sue from Couscous & Cousciousness has used it here to give autumn warmth to her Plum  & Cardamom Cake.  I love that she has frozen single serves ready for breakfast on the run or a quickfire dessert.

Jess, a Californian now living in New Zealand, makes people laugh with her stand-up comedy routine as well as promoting fitness and healthy eating on her blog Jessness Required.  So don’t be fooled by the names Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Easter Eggs (top) or No-Bake Peanut Butter Cookie Balls (bottom), these are her healthy versions.  Go on, take a look and experiment a little.

Last but not least will be me and my Peach Pie with Lemon Pastry.  Well it’s not actually mine it belongs to Nigel Slater but I am so glad I baked it.  It is everything a summer pie should be: fragrant golden peaches, light, lemony pastry and crispy crust.  It leaves you wanting more.

And if you want more, don't forget Sweet New Zealand will be hosted in April by Monica from Delissimon. 

I’ve had fun hosting Sweet New Zealand for March and bringing these recipes and blogs to you.  Have a Happy Easter.

cheese straws for book club

Just to prove I’m not averse to a savoury bite, here’s some cheese straws I made for book club last Thursday.

I needed something not too fiddly to handle.  You know that moment when you’re sitting with a glass of wine in hand, along with your book, and a plate, when someone offers you food and it’s a complicated juggling and balancing act with no table nearby to spill onto?  And your frightened you’re going to drop everything on to your host’s pale carpet?  Yes, that one.

So, something easy to have with wine, something a little different from crackers and cheese.  That’s not to say the crackers and cheese weren’t lovely.  In fact, savoury crackers and ripe blue cheese partnered with the most perfect pears were so worthy of a second helping – or was it a third? – someone was possibly counting.

I thought of these. Finger shaped finger food!  Perfect.

They were so quick to whizz up in the food processor.  Okay, you’ve got to clean up the mess you made after.  But you can be like me and swan out the door, cheese straws, wine and book (or should it be book, cheese straws and wine?) in hand, leaving someone else to clean up after me.

For the cheese, I used Mainland’s Vintage – a rich, aged cheddar with a sharp bite and crumbly texture.  Description came from the packaging, but really it does taste like that with an additional nutty flavour (or maybe that’s just me?).  Added to the rich, buttery pastry, you have a savoury biscuit that’s pretty hard to resist. If you don’t have said cheese, any mature, sharp cheddar or Parmesan can be used. 

Cut the biscuits into any old shape you want using knives, biscuit cutters, whatever.  You can even cut long strips and then twist them.  I cut mine into long strips and left them plain.  I patiently measured the pastry into 1cm across by 10cm in length to get a uniform size.  But don’t look too closely as I was getting a bit slapdash by the end of this process.

I thought of serving them upstanding in a jar or glass but didn’t have one with a wide enough mouth, so I bundled them up in string-tied parcels and you could just pull one out at a time leaving the rest intact in their little package.  

Back home, the dishes had been done and the leftover cheese straws eaten.  Job done, time for bed!

Next up:  I don’t usually do a preview – mainly because I never know what I’ll be doing next – but next post I’ll be commenting on the inaugural New Zealand Bloggers’ Food Conference which was fantastic and I am still all buzz about it!

cheese straws

Recipe makes approximately 24

125g standard flour

125g mature cheddar cheese, grated

125g very cold butter, grated

½ tsp salt

a small pinch of paprika (or cayenne)

Place all the ingredients in a food processor and blend until mixture just forms a ball.  On a lightly floured board, roll out the pastry to about 1cm thick.  Cut into desired shapes or strips.  Place on a baking tray then chill in the fridge for 10 minutes before baking.

Bake at 200°C for approximately 15-20 minutes until golden-brown.  Watch carefully to ensure the biscuits do not burn.

Leave on tray for a few minutes, then carefully remove to a wire tray to cool.

Hint:  Keep pastry cool and handle as little as possible.

Lemon Cotswold

Leafing through an old cookbook, a recipe catches my eye.  Or, more accurately, the name attracts me -  Lemon Cotswold.

I love lemons.  I think I love the Cotswolds (http://www.cotswolds.info/) but I can’t be sure, I’ve only been there once. 

This is essentially a lemon cheesecake. Not as evocative a name as Lemon Cotswold, I know.  

Sometimes I find cheesecakes a bit heavy.  This one has a whipped, creamy lemon topping – all light and soufflé-like. 

First point to note: this recipe made a lot of filling.  The recipe said to fill the biscuit lining.  It did not say to pile it high.  There was no photo to guide me.  Unless I was heading for the leaning tower of lemon, (you may want to go there), there was no way I could use the full amount, so I froze the leftovers.  I was happy with the amount I used (see photo) but you could use the entire filling and stack it up high.

Since making this recipe, I spotted a similar one whilst browsing through a cookbook at work (the ones that come in every few weeks for sale at some ridiculously low price when you’ve paid a fortune for it back in its prime).  It had a picture of a lemon cheesecake with the topping piled high on the base.

Second point to note: I swapped the digestive biscuits for ginger nuts.  I’m not being original.  People do this all the time.  Choose your preference.  I just liked the idea of lemon and ginger – kind of reminded me of my soothing herbal tea.  However, ginger nuts being the kind of tooth-breaking biscuits they are, try not to layer them too thick on the base and sides.

Lastly, the recipe stated half a large tin of evaporated milk.  Well, chef, just how big were tins of evaporated milk back then? I figured I’d use half of a normal sized tin of today – that being half of 375ml – work it out, I’m useless at maths.  It seemed to work.

As for the frozen leftover topping – I have no idea how well this will freeze but I feel a Lemon Cotswold Frozen Dessert coming on….

Lemon Cotswold

115g butter, melted                             2 lemons (1 large or two small should suffice)

250g (1 packet) ginger nut biscuits      170g Philadelphia (cream) cheese

(or use digestives)                              230g caster sugar                   

1 lemon jelly                                       ½ of a 375ml tin of evaporated milk (chilled)

6 fl oz water, boiled

Line the bottom of a 20cm cake tin with baking paper.  I normally cut a circle slightly larger than the detachable base.  Place the circle of baking paper over the base before clipping the top on.  That way it sits neatly across the bottom.  Melt the butter and while it is cooling, crush the biscuits (either put them in a plastic bag and bash a rolling pin on top of them or, take the easy route and blitz them in your food processor).  Pour in the melted butter and mix to combine.   Place the biscuit mixture in the cake tin as evenly as possible, bringing the mixture up the side of the tin.

Dissolve the jelly in the hot water and squeeze the lemons.  Cream together the cheese and sugar in a cake mixer with a beater paddle (or by hand with a wooden spoon) until light.   Beat in the jelly and lemon juice.

Whisk the chilled, evaporated milk as stiff as possible and fold it into the cheese mixture.  Fill the biscuit base with as much as you want and chill in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.

The recipe is one of a collection of recipes from The Good Cook’s Guide (1974) – and originally came from the chef at the Tudor Rose in East Horsley.